Poxed

For many centuries – until well into the 20th century in fact – smallpox was a major cause of death worldwide. And if it didn't kill you, it left you horribly scarred, if not blind.

One of the shows being performed as part of the Ten Days on the Island Festival in Tasmania is a new play called Poxed by Stella Kent. It deals with the life of Lady Mary Montagu, an 18th century aristocrat living in the time of Alexander Pope, the poet and satirist, and the composer George Frederic Handel.

Lady Mary Montagu was not conventional in her time. She travelled widely and when her husband was appointed British amabassador to the Ottoman Empire, lived for some years in Turkey. There she mixed with the local women and came to witness their practice of 'innoculation'. In Istanbul, protection against smallpox was administered by old women, using live smallpox virus. While it may have been rudimentary it did produce some good results. As Lady Montagu herself had suffered from smallpox, she became a crusader for the procedure.